RHEA-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [RHEA-L] Figuring Birth Dates from Cemetery Stones
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 11:58:12 EDT

1. How to Figure Birthdates
>From "Compendium of Historical Sources"
by Ronald Bremer

Often tombstones have a notation such as: "Died 15 June 1872, Aged 77
years, 10
months, 3 days." How do you determine the correct birthdate?

First of all, make the sequence read days, months, years: thus 15-6-1872 minus
3-10-77.

Since the 10th month cannot be subtracted from the sixth, borrow 12 months
from
the year of death, making the year 1871 and the month 18. (If you borrow from
the month to make days, borrow 30 days, even though the month might have 31.)

The equation now looks like: 15-18-1871 minus 3-10-77. Begin the calculations
on the right hand side. Therefore, 77 years from 1871 means that the person
was
born in 1794. Subtracting 10 months from 18 gives you eight months, or August.
So the correct date of birth was 12 August 1794.

This thread:

• [RHEA-L] Figuring Birth Dates from Cemetery Stones by <>